The First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Esther Mcheka Chilenje on Tuesday ruled that the evidence Rumphi East MP, Kamlepo Kalua tendered in the House to prove corruption allegations against Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development, George Chaponda on maize import deal from Brazil is inadmissible in National Assembly.

Deputy speaker Esther Mcheka Chilenje: Evidence is inadmissible

Kalua said on Monday that he has it “on good authority” that Chaponda visited Brazil to discuss a maize deal.

But Chaponda denied the claims and demanded Kalua to bring evidence to substantiate his allegations that he vsited Brazil.

On Tuesday, Kalua told the House that he has “ two documents” which he wanted to tender as evidence of the facts he gave the House.

But after submitting the documents, First Deputy speaker Chilenje said she had observed that the evidence does not bear any signature and not on a letter head and could not verify its authenticity.

“I think this evidence is inadmissible because it is not on a letterhead and not signed. It is like a document which can be typed by any other person. Even the Courts could have demanded the evidence to be put on a letterhead and signed,” Chilenje said.

Chaponda, who is also Leader of the House and a trained lawyer, said Kalua was supposed to provide evidence that he travelled to Brazil and that he obtained “kickbacks” on the maize deal.

“There is something here which has to do with the military. He has printed correspondence obtained from wherever about military attachment. It is communication between Ambassador [Brian] Bowler from the Embassy in New York (Bowler is now in Brazil) and to me as the then Minister of Foreign Affairs. I don’t see how this evidence has anything to do with this issue which is supposed to be provided here,” said Chaponda.

Leader of the opposition, Lazarus Chakwera, who is also president of Malawi Congress Party (MCP), asked for the House to subpoena people mentioned to speak under oath as to establish “whether these things are true or not.”

Said Chakwera: “There are relevant Committees of Parliament that ought to look into the same rather than just pass judgement to say that this is not signed, therefore, inadmissible. If certain people need to be protected so they can give evidence under oath, let it be so, but these are very serious issues.”

But Chaponda insisted that Kalua stated the minister went to Brazil and on a contract relating to maize, claiming he was bribed, saying “that is the evidence which he will produce here.”

Chaponda dismissed Chakwera’s assertions to subpoena people, saying Standing Order 102 states that where a person makes allegation in Parliament and the House requested the person to come and present the evidence, “there is no question of subpoena or whatever.”

Henry Mussa, the Minister of Labour, Youth, Sports and Manpower Development backed Chaponda to demand that Kalua should bring objective material evidence of his claims.

“This is [MP Kalua] who had been all round to destroy other people’s character. It is time now for this to be stopped and we want this evidence to be brought before the House, failing which, Madam First Deputy Speaker, go back to the Speaker’s ruling, he has to be thrown out,” said Mussa.

However, MCP’s Member for Dedza North West , Alekeni Menyani, rising on a point of order asked for the evidence which Kalua had tendered to be circulated to other MPs.

“But in the manner that we are preceding, evidence has been given by the Member for Rumphi East through the Sergeant-at-Arms to you and we do not know what is contained there and you are going ahead to say it is inadmissible. How then do you have the whole House concurring with that decision to have been free and fair?

“What is out of order is that there is no information being circulated to the whole House so that we are also filled in and we are in the know because the Leader of the House is being defensive and Rumphi East is giving you evidence and therefore it points out that there is indeed a matter before the House.

“The only proper way to proceed would be in my view that the document be circulated whether admissible or inadmissible be circulated to the whole House and then we debate that matter,” said Menyani.

But Chaponda challenged Menyani saying “ there is no point of circulating something which is totally irrelevant.”

He said: “If he has provided something which is totally out of context, what is the point of circulating?”

The First Deputy Speaker told the House that Kalua presented a communication which was there between Ambassador Bowler who was the Malawi Ambassador at the United Nations in New York at that time and Chaponda who was Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

“The contents which are here cannot be the facts pertaining to the evidence,” said Chilenje.

The First Deupty Speaker then ruled that Kalua’s evidence is “inadmissible.”

Evidence is evidence until proven worthless. Remember the evidence that was used to arrest the Whatsapp coup plotters. Why were the deputy speaker and her DPP masters so anxious to discredit it? Would any person in his/her right mind write a letter on official letterhead if he/she was doing so in his/her personal capacity? Kamlepo should just be regarded as a whistleblower. Any country or institution serious about fighting corruption would have received the evidence, examined or investigated it and if there is no merit in it, dismiss it. They would not dismiss it out right as was the case… Read more »

The evidence is irrelevant. Chaponda is innocent until proven guilty.If Kalua has been implicating Chaponda based on Nyasatimes hearsay and condemning him guilty based on assumption of Chaponda being mentioned in another corruption matter by the very Kalua based upon another hearsay from the same Nyasatime, your analysis is wrong.
This mad Kalua should have been thrown out of the house for failure to bring the evidence for what he claims.

From what i am picking, Ambassador Bowler should have known something if this was a straight diplomatic maize deal. If he says he knows nothing, it means Chaponda and his other corrupt counter parts went to Brazil to strike maize the dubious maize deal without or by-passing the diplomats on the ground. What a waste of tax payers money! Why do we have ambassadors if every time Malawi want discussions we will have to be flying Ministers to do that? And worst still, they go ahead and convene meetings leaving out the diplomatic teams on the ground!!!! Shaddy and fishy!!!!!… Read more »

True to himself, Kalua is on a lifetime trip to destroy other people’s reputations. Regardless of even lack of evidence. Wagwa nazo; si mpira uwutu (evil missions; these as not games) He is always grandiose, and thinks he can even outwit trained lawyers, like Chaponda, when he never entered Law school. And now oChakwera is supporting Kalua: please stick to Church matters, which require beliefs rather than evidence. Kalua has now established a reputation as a reckless grand stander, with grandiose ideas and personality. This is serious: if he was an MP in my area, we would make sure he… Read more »

Being a lawyer does not mean you are sharp. It is just a profession like any other. You will be surprised that your Chaponda has lower IQ than Chakwera or Kamlepo. Have you forgotten his interpretation of fouling the air legislation to mean farting in public? Tell me which smart lawyer apart from Chaponda would understand this piece of law as thus. Don’t you think it is too coincidental to be a coincidence that we have a lawyer for president who seem not to know what he ought to do to govern our country well.

This is NOT about who is smart, or who is smarter. Nor is this about a lawyer being inertly smarter than anybody else. This is clearly about knowing the rules of evidence, as they are applied in Malawi Parliament: and Kalua should know those rules better, since he’s an MP and has several times brought spurious evidence in the House. Otherwise, he should study them first and stand on firm ground, rather than just wasting time, and continuing with his reckless behavior of targeting certain personalities, for whatever reasons. By his actions, Kalua is surely, and consistently, NOT advancing the… Read more »

INDEPENDENT DIPLOMAT or whatever you call yourself; insulting Bowler, without any basis, by insinuating that Bowler is becoming a disgrace, just show how shallow you are. The Brazil Maize scam in as far the media is concerned has nothing to do with Bowler. He said he knows nothing. He said he even called his counterpart, Brazilian Ambassador in Malawi, who also was ignorant about this deal. And here you are, rushing to brand Bowler a disgrace without any basis. Very unfortunate though typical of the way Malawians analyze stuff. Myopic. By the way, the comment is not to be construed… Read more »